Cottonwood Flat Cemetery History

The Cottonwood Flat Cemetery, located in the northeast corner of Scurry County, dates back to the 1890s. County records are unclear as to the official founding of the cemetery. However, documents filed at the Scurry County Courthouse on October 12, 1898, show that one Thomas J. Faught appeared before County Clerk, A. J. Grantham, for the purpose of placing in trust five acres of land for "Public Free School purposes forever." The legal description "being a part of the S. E. 1/4 of state school section No. 248 in Block 2 H. and T. C. Ry. Co., surveys." Specifics of the survey are recorded in the document. Although there is no mention of the land being used as a cemetery, the intent may have been for that purpose as well. By the time this document was filed, the land had been used as a cemetery for almost ten years.

In 1898, Jasper Helms purchased several sections of land (from Thomas J. Faught?) in northeast Scurry County. This transaction may have precipitated the need for a formal record of the donation of the land. Descendants of Jasper Helms still own the property surrounding the Cottonwood Flat Cemetery.

The present-day Cottonwood Community borders the County Line Community just across the county line in Fisher County. (Usually, the Cottonwood Flat community is referred to as Cottonwood, omitting "Flat.") Both communities were settled at about the same time in the late 1800s and in many respects operated as one. For example, the cemetery is located in Cottonwood; the churches (at one time there were two) were in County Line; but both communities had a two-room schoolhouse. However, occasionally children from one community attended school in the other community. This was also true for children from the Riverdale School community in Kent County, just across the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos River from County Line.

What we know about the establishment of the Cottonwood Flat Cemetery begins with our grandfather, Joseph Clegg. He was born in 1821, in North Carolina and eventually made his way into Texas in the 1840s or 50s stopping in Upshur, Erath, Bell, and Taylor Counties before moving his family to the Hobbs community in Fisher County in 1881. In 1887, Joseph filed a homestead claim on a quarter section of land in Longhorn Valley in the area that became the County Line Community and moved his family there in 1888. Longhorn Valley, is located in the northwest corner of Fisher County, bordering the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos River (Kent County) on the north, and Scurry County on the west.

Shortly after moving to the valley, Joseph Clegg was stricken while chasing a stray cow and died from either a heart attack or heatstroke (July 18, 1889). In this new settlement, then referred to as the "Double Mountain River Colony," there was no cemetery in the areas that would become County Line or Cottonwood, as there had been no need for one up to this time. What was our grandmother Lucy to do? Her husband had just died and she had no place to bury him. Fortunately, according to family lore, the men were digging a cellar near the house on the farm. After neighboring men constructed a wooden box for Joseph, he was buried in the newly dug cellar, with the intent of moving his body to a community cemetery when one was developed.

The establishment of a cemetery happened sooner than expected. Less than a year after Joseph Clegg died, a young cowboy named A. A. Shutts was killed (May 22, 1890) while working cattle on a ranch in the area. Not yet having a cemetery in the community, the owner of the ranch where Shutts was working, [Believed to be Thomas J. Faught who appears in the county document above], allowed the cowboy to be buried in a grave in a corner of one of his pastures. This "cemetery" was located between the developing Cottonwood and County Line communities and came to be known as the Cottonwood Flat Cemetery. Shutts would be the first person to be buried there.

In an account about the County Line/Cottonwood communities, Josie Baird has added further details relating to the cemetery. She believed the land was likely used by the Two Circles Bar ranch prior to that time. She states, "In the early nineties, the Two Circles Bar boys made up money to build a little school at Cottonwood Flat." There is a possibility that Shutts was a cowboy from that ranch. Otherwise, why would the cowboys contribute money to establish a school so far from their local headquarters located at the mouth of Rough Creek where it joins the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos. Baird noted that at another time, a young cowboy was thrown from a bronc and was buried in a canyon near "Hole-in-the-Wall" in Kent County. This supports the idea that cowboys sometime buried a fallen man near the site of his death.

A short time later, (January 19, 1891), a second man, a neighbor of the Cleggs named Willie A. Mayberry, died of tuberculosis. Since the "new cemetery" was now established, he was buried just south of Stutts' grave. Years later, our father, Frank Clegg, recalled Mayberry's death. Frank was a young boy of 18 at the time. One day a white-haired traveling circuit rider came to the community to preach. He had spent the night with the Cleggs and was preparing to move to his next "congregation." The morning of his departure, the preacher gathered the folks around for devotions. One of the hymns the group sang was "O come Angel Band." Our dad clearly remembered the words of the song:

O come, angel band,
Come and around me stand,
O bear me away on your snowy wings
To my immortal home.

Frank was standing near the preacher with his girl friend, Pearl Latham. At the conclusion of the song, the preacher looked up into heaven and in his Scottish brogue, proclaimed, "Me thinks I hear angel wings coming to take someone home." Almost before he got the words out of his mouth, a neighbor shouted from the hill above the valley with the news that Willie Mayberry had just died. Needless to say, Frank was awed by the preacher's prophetic pronouncement and never forgot the circumstances that surrounded Willie Mayberry's death. Perhaps he was still affected by his father's sudden death a year earlier.

A short time after these two men died and were buried in a "real cemetery," Grandma Lucy decided it was time to move Joseph. The story is told that she paid a man three dollars to move her husband's body to the new cemetery. So while Joseph Clegg was the first person to have died in the new settlements, he was the third to be buried in the Cottonwood Flat Cemetery.

In the early 1900s, the three communities continued to grow. Farms and ranches were cleared and settled; schools were built and staffed; social events were held; and churches were formed, first in the County Line schoolhouse, then later in two tabernacles near the Scurry/Fisher County line. To our knowledge, a church was never established in the Riverdale Community. However, religious services and "singings" were often held in the Riverdale Schoolhouse. As is true of all communities, the cemetery became the final resting place for those who died: some from illnesses, some from accidents, and some from other misfortunes, including suicide.

Now the three communities are sparsely populated. Only a few houses are scattered around the area where dozens of homes once stood. In earlier times, a trip through the three communities would take you past all the busy homesteads: the Poteet place, the Grays, the Shipps, the Underwoods, the Helms, the Bairds, large families all. But not anymore. Today, to relive the early history of the three communities, you need only to stroll through the Cottonwood Flat or Riverdale Cemetery. There you will find a virtual history of the area: Many of the graves are marked with the names of Helms, Hudnall, Hardin, Shipp, Latham, Murphree, Poteet, Gray, Adair, Underwood, and Clegg, as well as names of other early settlers. And more than that, you will find new graves and recent markers, mostly descendents of those early settlers of Riverdale, Cottonwood, and County Line.

There is something in humans that make them long for home. They often want to return to their childhood lands, to the place of their beginnings. With apologies to John Denver, perhaps he said it best: "County roads, take me home, to the place where I belong. Longhorn Valley, Country Mama, Take me home, Country roads."

Many children and grandchildren-and even great-grandchildren-of those hardy pioneers will find their way home to be laid to rest beside their ancestors. The houses are gone, the roads have changed, the farmland has become a hunting mecca, but the Cottonwood Flat and the Riverdale Cemeteries will not be forgotten. They will continue to grow and be revered by those whose roots run deep in the County Line, Cottonwood, and Riverdale Communities.

Cottonwood Flat Cemetery

*Luther's note for those of you who are direct descendants of Joseph Clegg: The story has always been told that our grandfather Joseph died of a heart attack. For many years, that was never questioned, and it really doesn't matter much. However, it would be good to know if Joseph had a heart condition that he may have passed on to his offspring. For this reason, I think it is important to re-examine what might have caused his death.

There is a possibility he might have died of a heart attack, but it's also possible a heat stroke may have contributed to his death. Remember this was more than a hundred years ago, and from all accounts, July 17, 1889, was a very hot day. The story goes that Joseph had been chasing an ornery cow. He sat down to cool off. No one living today knows what happened after that, but he didn't live long.

Might he have died of a heat stroke? Perhaps. We have no way of knowing. However, the Clegg family history generally does not include problems related to the heart. As far as we know, none of Joseph's children exhibited heart problems. Joseph's three sons lived to be in their 80s or 90s. (Uncle John Clegg, Uncle Tom Clegg, and our dad, Joseph Frank).

Of our dad's (Frank Clegg) 13 children, three died before their "four score and ten allotment given in the Bible. Wallace died in a well accident at about the age of 30. Nita died at 51 of cancer and Jack died in his 60s of cancer. Lewis, Leo, Mollie, Peep, Bertie, and Clifford all lived into their late 80s or 90s. Willard, at age 96, is still living (as of this writing of May 2013) and Jimmy (84), Luther (80) and Frances (73) are still with us. As far as I know none exhibited problems related to the heart except perhaps for high blood pressure. This is why I believe Grandpa Joseph may have died of something other than a heart attack. If that had been the sole cause of his death, it seems heart problems would have shown up in his children and grandchildren. Oh, well, it's just an idea. After more than 120 years, we will never know, and it really doesn't matter. He's dead and whatever the cause, I'm thankful that his "heart condition" didn't seem to be passed on his offspring.

Cottonwood Flat Cemetery in Scurry County. Grave markers of Joseph Clegg (1821-1889) and Lucy Harris Clegg (1846-1920). A bronze plaque has been placed between the two markers giving a brief account of the Clegg history from England in 1683 to Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and finally to Texas in c. 1849.

Visible in the center is the grave marker of Louis Cass Poteet (1859-1937) and Eunice Spivey Poteet (1881-1967) located in the Cottonwood Flat Cemetery in Scurry County.

Other relatives of Louis Poteet who are buried there are: mother: Narcissia Baldridge Poteet (1825-1912); sisters: Mary Walls (1846-1903) and Melinda (Lindy) (1861-1939) and her husband, Jeff Gray (1860-1934); Louis's first wife: Leila Foote Poteet (1875-1900); son from first marriage: Marcellius (1899-1900); second wife: Vashti Eunice Spivey Poteet (1881-1967); children of Lewis and Eunice: George Poteet (1904-1961), John Poteet (1905-1977), Henry Poteet (1911-2003) and wife Ruby (1913-2000); Narcissia Poteet Clegg (1902-1984) and husband Frank (1873-1959); baby son (1920); and baby daughter (1923). Grandchildren: Nita Clegg (1929-1980) and Steve Poteet (1944-1967). Steve's marker indicates his ashes were scattered over the Poteet farm. Note: Most of this information can be found on the Cottonwood Flat Cemetery website. However, in several instances, the information contained in the website is incorrect, especially dates of birth. We've corrected them when we had accurate information.